Set in New York City, it chronicles the lives and hardships of students attending The High School of Performing Arts, from their auditions to their freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years.

The script's subject matter received criticism by the New York Board of Education, which prevented the production from filming in the actual High School of Performing Arts.

It initially received a mixed response from reviewers who praised the music, but criticized the dramatic tone, pacing and direction although the film has been reappraised over the years.

Accepted in the Drama department are Montgomery MacNeil, son of a well-known actress; Doris Finsecker, a shy Jewish girl with an overbearing mother; and Ralph Garci, who succeeds after failed auditions for Music and Dance.

Michael, a graduating senior, wins a prestigious scholarship and tells Doris that the William Morris Agency wants to send him out for auditions for television pilots.

Sophomore year A new student, Hilary van Doren, joins the school's Dance department and becomes romantically involved with Leroy.

Montgomery discusses discovering his homosexuality, while coming out in front of his classmates; Doris relates her humiliation at being forced by her stage mother to sing at a child's birthday party; and Ralph tells of learning about the death of his idol Freddie Prinze.

The next day, she realizes that as an actress she can put on any personality she wants, but is sobered upon running into Michael, who is struggling as an actor and waiting tables.

Senior year Ralph performs comedy at Catch a Rising Star, where he garners some initial success, but falls into a hard-party lifestyle which upsets Doris.

In 1976, talent manager David De Silva attended a stage production of A Chorus Line and noticed that one of the musical numbers, "Nothing", had made a reference to the New York City High School of Performing Arts.

[1][3] He met with De Silva in New York City where the two agreed that Parker would draft his own script,[3] with Gore receiving sole screenwriting credit.

Parker attended a weekend screening with Marshall, and the enthusiastic crowd inspired him to write a similar scene for the film, during which the character Doris Finsecker dances along to the "Time Warp" musical number.

[1][8] He and casting directors Margery Simkin and Howard Feuer spent four months of the film's pre-production auditioning young performers.

[1][3] Barry Miller, who achieved critical acclaim for his supporting role in Saturday Night Fever (1977), was cast as Ralph Garci, an aspiring actor and standup comic of Puerto Rican descent.

[13] Maureen Teefy, an established actress of Irish descent, was cast as Doris Finsecker, a shy and uptight Jewish girl.

[5] In response, representatives of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) halted the production, and forbade Parker from using smoke on the set.

[3] Parker later hired Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown to film Doris and Ralph's dialogue scene in a New York City Subway station.

Parker had originally approached Giorgio Moroder, who had previously worked on Midnight Express, and Jeff Lynne, the lead performer of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), both of whom had declined.

[3] Parker turned to Gore and Pitchford, requesting that they write a song would combine the film's three musical elements: gospel, rock and classical.

[7] The resulting song, "I Sing the Body Electric", was named by Pitchford after the same-titled poem from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" collection.

[1] The studio was concerned with the film's cast of then-unknown actors, and felt that the limited theatrical run would generate strong word-of-mouth support from critics and audiences.

Jack Matthews of the Associated Press wrote "Barry Miller bolts from the screen with a performance that will etch itself into the viewer's mind for a long time to come"[30] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, writing, "When the kids perform, the movie sings, but their fictionalized personal stories are melodramatic drivel.

"[32] Variety magazine wrote, "The great strength of the film is in the school scenes – when it wanders away from the scholastic side as it does with increasing frequency as the overlong feature moves along, it loses dramatic intensity and slows the pace.

"[33] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four writing, "Fame is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that understands being a teen-ager as well as Breaking Away did, but studies its characters in a completely different milieu.

"[34] William Gallagher, in his review for the BBC, wrote, "Alan Parker manages to make this a fairly horrible story even while it remains entertaining.

Returning cast members from the film included Lee Curreri, Albert Hague, Gene Anthony Ray and Debbie Allen.

After the series was renewed, The Kids from "Fame" produced three additional albums, all of which proved less successful and resulted in the band members parting ways to pursue other projects.

[53] The television film was to introduce several students applying for positions at the New York City of Performing Arts, while the spin-off series would focus on their lives during their four years of attending the school.

[57] The project resurfaced in June 2015, when The Hollywood Reporter announced that MGM Television would be co-producing the series with A&E Networks for Lifetime, with Josh Safran attached as the show's writer and executive producer.

[59] The remake followed the premise of the original film, depicting the lives of several students as they attend the New York City High School of Performing Arts.